Hurricanes Down Akron to Finish 3-0 in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nev. (AP) – Reggie Johnson scored a season-high 21 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead Miami past Akron 69-61 on Thursday in the final round of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic.

The Hurricanes (10-3) went 4-0 in the Classic, including a 3-0 mark in Las Vegas this week.

Malcolm Grant added 17 points for Miami, highlighted by an 11-of-12 effort from the free throw line, while Durand Scott added 12 points and a season-high nine rebounds.

Brett McKnight led the Zips (7-5) with 20 points. Brett McClanahan had 11 points and Nikola Cvetinovic 10 for Akron, which finished 6 of 27 from 3-point range and 2-1 at the Classic.

Miami, which was a season-low 1 of 11 from 3-point range, extended its 38-22 halftime lead to 57-35 with 10:08 left on two Grant free throws.

Akron responded with a 16-0 run. But the spurt ended after Johnson’s dunk with 4:51 left caused the clock above the basket to shut down. It never was fixed.

Miami went 6 of 6 from the line in the final 1:26 to curtail Akron’s late rally, and offset a poor 3-point shooting night by outscoring the Zips 26-12 in the paint.

Tonight’s Starters
Starting for Miami this afternoon was Durand Scott, Malcolm Grant, Garrius Adams, Erik Swoope and Reggie Johnson for the second-straight game, improving to 2-0.

On the Double
Reggie Johnson registered his seventh double-double of the season with game-highs of 21 points — just one point shy of his career best — and 12 rebounds. He is now tied with Dwayne Collins (2009-10) and Eric Brown (1987-88) with the 10th most double-doubles in a season for a UM player.

Johnson shot 9 of 14 from the field and a perfect 3 of 3 from the line versus the Zips. Over the last five games, he is a perfect 10 of 10 from the charity stripe and has hit 12-straight free throws dating back to the Dec. 4 win over West Virginia.

Speaking of Free Throws
Malcolm Grant went 11 of 12 from the line this afternoon and has converted 49 of his last 52 free throws (.942) since Dec. 4. The only other Hurricane to have hit more the 49 free throws ALL SEASON is Durand Scott, who is shooting 84.1 percent (53-63) from the line this season (6 of 7 versus Akron) — much improved from 67.0 percent free throwing shooting as a freshman in 2009-10.

The Hurricanes hit their first 11-straight free throws versus the Zips before missing from the line with 6:20 remaining in the opening period. Miami finished 72.2 percent from the line in the win (26-36).

Thomas for Three
Adrian Thomas hit Miami’s only 3 pointer on the afternoon to extend his 3-point streak to eight-straight games. He now has a trey in 55 of his last 61 games, while his 143 career threes rank ninth most in Miami program history and trail Johnny Hemsley (1996-2000) in eighth place by 21 treys.

Despite hitting a season-high tying 13 threes at a season-high 56.5 percent clip in Wednesday’s win over Rice, the Hurricanes hit a season-low one trey in today’s victory over Akron. In addition, the Zips — who hit 14 of 29 3-point attempts (.483) in their Wednesday win over Stetson — was held to just 22.2 percent beyond the arc today (6-27), hiiting all six of their treys in the second half.

Hurricane Warning
Miami has now defeated 31 of its last 34 non-conference opponents, have won three-straight games on a neutral court and eight of its last nine games overall.